Channing Tatum Signs On For X-Men‘s Worst Character Ever

UPDATE — To quote Grantland's wonderful Alex Pappademus: "And I don’t want to hear it, Gambit fans. If your dude were really so awesome, nothing resembling this sentence would appear in his Wikipedia entry: 'Standing in the cold, scouting the Weapon X facility, Remy couldn’t bear the cold and swore he would steal a long, stylish jacket in New Orleans after the mission, which he did.' And yet, it does."

Going after the X-Men franchise is like kicking a giant hive of angry, consistently ret-conned and heavy-on-the-multiverse, incredibly well-informed bees. But, there is a serious thread within the X-Men critical dialogue (led by writer Chris Sims) that has, for many years, gone after the Cajun, phonetically speaking, kinetically charged Gambit for being a giant mutant toolshed. And, Channing Tatum has replaced Taylor Kitsch to play said toolshed.

First of all: Gambit is the worst. The entire point of X-Men and its franchise is to glorify the outsider, highlighting the differences of a racially diverse, sexually forward-thinking group of misfits who — without getting into semantics — generally fight for the underdog. But, then, in the '90s, Marvel introduced Gambit, who was really, really cool. Not in an edgy, thinking-outside-the-box way, but in a way that is filled with winks accompanied by finger guns and the smell of aftershave. And, as many have pointed out, Gambit's main superpower is being able to kinetically charge objects and throw them at his adversaries. His threatening object of choice? Not a knife, a rabid porcupine, or, say, a throwing star — it's a playing card. He's like 52 Pickup...from hell.

Of course, if there is any person in Hollywood who could possibly imbue this laughably annoying character with some sense of humanity, it might be Good Guy Channing Tatum. More so than Gambit's previous portrayer Taylor Kitsch — who gave Gambit his familiar sense of ugh — Tatum will be able to at least add a touch of likability to his one-dimensional ladykiller-who-is-also-a-thief-but-a-Cajun-stereotype-and-also-a-ninja role. Maybe. Good luck, Chan. You'll need it.

Also, Gambit's hair sucks.